AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As they argued, I saw my chance and ran, gritting my teeth against the pain. The eye he’d punched had already swollen shut. My arm throbbed. More of me would hurt if I didn’t escape, though. Fear hastened my steps. Like any wounded prey, I looked for a spot to hide. While I’d owned the junkyard for almost a year now, I’d not gone through even a quarter of the towers of junk. I’d been taking my time dismantling the piles to unearth the treasures: old cars and appliances. If it had metal and a motor, chances were, it ended up in the junkyard. Then I tagged it, took a picture, and uploaded it to my website. Once the search engines indexed it, anyone looking could find me.
I headed for one of the untouched mounds.
I didn’t make it.
The sudden pounding of footsteps at my rear barely prepared me. I spun around. Too late. Once more, the one called Joey clobbered me.
Stunned, I couldn’t avoid the sweep of my ankles that dumped me onto the ground.
The hefty Joey, grinning and showing off his black and tartar-covered teeth, stood over me. “Either hand over the cash, or I’ll take my payment in flesh.” He leered.
I gagged. The thought of him touching me… I’d rather die.
His companion arrived and shoved him. “Joey, enough. We got the money. Let’s go.”
“Not before I get me some action.” His hands went to his pants, held up by a knotted shoestring.
“Gross, dude. Leave the old hag alone.”
Old? I took offense, even as I crawled away.
A hand grabbed me by the ankle. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Desperate, I reached out to grab hold of something, anything, to stem the drag back into the Hell Joey promised. My fingers clamped around metal, and I clung for dear life as my assailant pulled and laughed.
“Feisty, I like it,” he chortled.
Sick fucker. I didn’t let go, but my grip grew slippery from the blood oozing from the slice across my palm. It smeared the metal I’d chosen as my anchor, making it harder and harder to hold on.
A hard yank tore me free, and I couldn’t help but scream, “Fuck off!” as I kicked and thrashed.
As if the would-be rapist listened.
Joey flipped me over, and even in the gloom, I saw him lick his lips in anticipation. He dropped to his knees, pinning me in place. I shoved at him, but dizzy and in pain, he easily batted aside my hands. It didn’t help that his friend had changed his mind and chose to restrain my left arm.
I wanted to cry but could only pray.Please, help me.
Please.
The mountain of metal looming over us groaned and uttered a metallic squeal as it shifted.
“That didn’t sound good. Maybe we should move.” Joey’s nervous friend released my arm.
“You’re right. We should relocate. The office had a soft-looking couch,” Joey agreed a second before a hunk of metal came crashing down, knocking him aside. Before I could move, the mountain of junk fell over, knocking me out cold.
CHAPTER3
I wasn’tsure how long I lost consciousness. All I knew was that when I woke, I found myself pinned under a pile of metal, still wearing my pants and not throbbing anywhere I shouldn’t. The more pressing question, though: Had the tweakers left?
I barely dared to breathe as I listened. I certainly didn’t move. Hearing nothing, I tried to assess my situation. Dire, despite the fact that I’d escaped being raped and killed. I appeared to be under a mound of junk, a sizeable one, with no idea how to get free.
In some astonishing piece of luck, despite the mountain that’d fallen on me, it didn’t appear as if it had crushed any part of my body. However, the detritusdidsurround me in a cage that I didn’t dare shift, out of fear that I’d upset the precarious balance that kept me from being squashed flat like a bug.
It would be the height of irony if my midlife dream occupation ended up being the death of me. I could see the headline now:Woman found eaten by raccoons under a pile of scrap metal. Neighbors express surprise that it wasn’t cats, given she was an almost fifty-year-old divorcee.
In reality, no one would give a shit if I died. Most of my friends had drifted away over the years. Some had moved for jobs. Others because of their partners. But the majority had split off when they had babies. They’d become families who did family things.
I preferred a dog. One who would be worried when his mama didn’t come home.
